B, Post Pentecost 4 Proper 6 - 2 Corinthians 5:6–17 "A Godly Home"

2 Corinthians 5:6–10 (ESV)  So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,  for we walk by faith, not by sight.  Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Paul writes to the Corinthians, as he does to all whom he writes, to call the congregation into faithfulness to Jesus Christ, who is the faithful King of Kings!

While he is with them, he is meek, but in his absence his letters are far from gentle.  In his letters to the Corinthians, he calls them to repentance; to turn away from the comforts of their pleasures to the comforts of Christ. He calls them to take good courage from his guidance even though what he says to them does cause them internal suffering and hurt.

He says, “For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.  As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.  For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.  For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”  (2 Corinthians 7:8–10 ESV)

Paul prepares the Corinthians for the resurrection of the dead.  He goes to great lengths to unpack this in his first letter to the Corinthians in chapter fifteen, as some in the congregation claim there is no resurrection, which left unchallenged by Paul would have pushed the Corinthians back into a worldly grief that produces eternal death.

Today in the reading from Second Corinthians chapter five,  Paul calls for courage to walk by faith and not sight, to please the Lord while we are in our bodily home, as we wait to be home with the Lord.

He sobers them, and you and me, with a reminder that on our way to being home with the Lord, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”  (2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV)

In saying this Paul affirms what Jesus himself says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.”  (Matthew 25:31–33 ESV)

While Jesus dwelt amongst his apostles, he teaches them to preach this.  We hear Peter speak of Jesus’ judgement to the Gentiles, saying, “he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”  (Acts 10:42 ESV)

Paul says to the Corinthians, and to you and me, after you leave your bodily home, you will receive your due for what you’ve practised, whether good or evil.  A little further on in the text he says something quite strange at its first hearing, “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.”  (2 Corinthians 5:13 ESV)

Here Paul is using the same home language as he first used with the Corinthians, “Home in the Lord or at home in the body”.  When they are beside themselves Paul and other’s whose work is to teach, are at home with the Lord, and seek the hearer to have a Godly home too.  If Paul and other teachers are in their right minds, they suffer in the home of their bodies, to make homes for the hearers with the Lord.

Paul and those who are called to proclaim the truth of the resurrection of Christ and his judgement are led by the Holy Spirit, having been sent by Jesus Christ to guide all disciples of Christ, now that the old self is dead.

We hear, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;  and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15,17 ESV)

Now that you are a new creation, you’re called to examine yourself.  You are invited to look at what germinates within you, to see what kind of home you desire for yourself and what kind of home you proclaim to others, with your thoughts, with your words, and with your actions.

Psalm ninety-two also talks of seeds sprouting and trees growing.  In it the psalmist compares a stupid man as sprouting grass, here one moment, but doomed to destruction, versus the righteous person, like cedars and palms planted in the courts of the Lord, whose evergreen life still bears fruit in its old age.

The psalmist uses the picture of cedars and palms because of their longevity and their fruit, but he also uses them because the cedars are the biggest trees living on the highest mountains of the Middle East.  The palms are date palms, a tree that gives life in the desert, with a fruit that’s the sugar of the Middle East, a tree of life in a desolate place. 

But the psalmist uses the image of the cedar and the palm for the righteous, because those who came into God’s presence to sabbath in the temple, were surrounded by the cedars of Lebanon that built and lined the temple.  The walls of the temple were carved with palms, so that those who came into God’s house came into his sabbath rest on the seventh day.  A re-creation of the garden of Eden, with trees of life.  They came to make a Godly home with the God who seeks to dwell with his people.

As we are at home in our bodies, God seeks to cause Godly grief within you and me.  Those who don’t carry Godly grief put trust in their bodily home and fail to recognise the body is a temporary failing dwelling.  God seeks to sustain you through death to finally reveal the new creation, you’ve hopefully allowed God to work.

At the resurrection our seed of either good or evil will receive its reward.  What will the resurrection reveal about the type of seed that’s germinated within you?

We might be surprised that what we perceive as being good, might just be what God deems as evil.  Whereas the good God looks for, are the very deeds, we tend to overlook and avoid most of the time.

Here again God works for Godly grief that leads to repentance!   In fact, humility leading to repentance is one of the great goods that God seeks, glorifying God’s work of creation, Jesus’ work of redemption, and the Holy Spirit’s work of leading us to drown the human spirit, the old self, in daily repentance.   

Follow Jesus alone!  He is the way, the truth, and the life!   The good, God seeks, are works of faith in him, and what he is doing.  Godly grief leads to a Godly home!  But bodily glory leads to worldly and bodily grief, and eternal death. 

Finally, the pictures of the mustard seed, and the man broadcasting seeds of grain, as parables of the kingdom of heaven, are pictures of God planting humanity and Jesus Christ.

The sickle will be put into God’s crop, and the good seed will be sieved from the bad.  Jesus became the smallest of seeds for humanity and was buried in the ground in death.  Our seed is made good only by this Mustard Seed.  In his resurrection this Mustard Seed has germinated and grown larger than the cedars of Lebanon, and his fruit is sweeter than the sweetest of dates.  In his resurrection, Jesus is the new glorious temple for our new creation in which to rest and tabernacle, with God our Father!

Don’t try to convince God of your goodness, using the tree of your knowledge of good and evil.  It didn’t work for Adam and Eve, and it won’t work for you either!

Those who wish to receive a Godly home on judgement day, will do well to allow the Holy Spirit to make their home in this Mustard Tree, to rest and remain in these branches of Jesus Christ, the Tree of Life!  Amen.

Heavenly Father, you have sent us Jesus Christ, who has constructed and gives us his way with the timbers of the tree of the cross, who is the Tree of Truth on that cross, and the Tree of Life, from whom the Holy Spirit descends to gather us into his branches and helps us bear our cross.  Heavenly Father, give us good courage to trust our home is in the shade of your eternal love.  Amen. 

C, Epiphany 7 - Luke 6:27–38 "On Being Merciful, Perfect, & Holy"

Luke 6:27–38 (ESV) “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.  “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.  Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.  “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;  give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

There are a lot of commands laid out here by Jesus in the Gospel reading before us.  Love your enemies, do good, bless, pray for those who abuse you.  Offer the cheek to those who strike you, do not withhold your tunic.  Give, do not demand back.  Love, do good, lend, and expect nothing.  Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.  Judge not, condemn not, forgive, and give.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  Jesus makes seventeen demands in this text. 

He goes on to say, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,  for each tree is known by its own fruit.  For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.  The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks”.  (Luke 6:43–45 ESV)

Sitting down to write this sermon proved interesting as there was commotion going on in the manse yard.  Our dog was excited by all the noise as chaps from the church assisted a fellow removing trees from the gardens.  And there I sat trying to write a sermon on mercy, while outside no mercy was being shown to the pencil pine that had to go because it had outgrown its position and was lifting the paths and fence around it.  And out back trees were being removed so fruit trees can be planted with the hope of getting a sweet crop.

A member who will remain unnamed, but use to be an accountant, asked me if the activity around the manse was inspiring me with my sermon writing.  I told him it’s hard to write a sermon on mercy when trees were mercilessly being chopped down.  To which, with a cheeky grin, he replied, “it’s for the greater good of the pastor.”

This made me ponder why Jesus has given us these seventeen rules!  Has he done so for the “greater good” or is there another point being made?  What fruit is being produced by doing these seventeen demands?  If it is for some greater good, what is this greater good? 

Thinking about trees, now chopped down and cleared away, I know I didn’t hate those trees.  In fact, they looked quite good.  But I know the pine out the front was going to cause ongoing problems that the parish would not love addressing.  And as for the trees on the back fence having to go, I love the pleasure of growing and picking one’s own produce more.

Jesus’ first command is to love your enemies.  But what if they bear bad fruit as the text says?  Am I to somehow love them, for the greater good?  Anyway, what is the greater good, the summum bonum, the ultimate of all goodness?  What would my motives be for doing so, and what measure would I use to determine how to love them.

It’s here I realise loving my enemy is difficult, to say the least.  I am unsettled by the fact that perfectly good trees are cut down for reasons that might be based more on my desire being deemed “the greater good’ or the desire of the parish to not have the “greater evil” by getting rid of the pencil pine now.  And these are non-issues, compared to my desire to have little to nothing to do with one that might be considered as an enemy.

If my thought process is so fickle,  and I can deem my enemy as a bad tree, what is to stop them from considering me the same?  Perhaps I’m a tree that’s lost its purpose and needs to be chopped down in the scheme of someone else’s greater good!   Whose greater good is more important?  World Wars have started over thinking like this!

Our motives are exposed like raw nerves by Jesus in this text.  He shows us we are constantly investing ourselves, our time, and our possessions in schemes that will benefit ourselves.  It may be for financial gain, acceptance of others, a selfish desire to smooth things over, creating a pseudo-peace, because we don’t want to give the time or effort to open and heal wounds in need of healing.  Our motives seem to follow the path of least resistance to pleasure within.

This being the case, then, how do I love my enemies?  How do we as a community under Christ, love our enemies?

Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36 ESV)

In Matthew’s account Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48 ESV)

Jesus here points us to the Law.  Jesus’ call, to be merciful and perfect, is the same as God’s call to be holy. 

Jesus is reflecting what God said through Moses to the people of Israel.  “For I am the LORD your God.  Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44 ESV)

Jesus calls us to cleanse ourselves of anything that defiles his holiness.

Why does God the Father and Jesus demand holiness?  The short answer is because he loves us and wants to preserve life?  This is the life he has given to us in love, and he wills us to have for each other. 

This love is not love for myself or my motives.  But it’s a love that brings a community together in God’s presence, where there is perfect peace, where God gives, where we receive together with joy, and where we worship him with fervent love for loving us.

Jesus reinforces God’s call to be holy, through being perfect and merciful, to reveal the lies of our love, no matter how great we think our good is, or how bad our evil actually is.  There are no lies in God’s love and holiness.  All is brought out into the light by Jesus.

As much as we, who are in Christ, have been given the holy will to be merciful, perfect, and holy to please the Father, we cannot be this by our own effort.  Jesus was incarnate in our human flesh, he lived a perfect and merciful life, and died in all holiness, because through our love, we cannot do it.

So, should we give up striving?  Well, yes and no!  Yes!  Because we will condemn ourselves if we believe we can be holy by our own efforts?  And no!  Because when we give up, we demonstrate faithlessness in he who is working salvation within us?

God’s holy plan for us is to show us we are as far away from perfection as ice is from steam, as white is from black, as sour is from sweet.

But God bridges the divide between holiness and evil; God’s good and our good intentions; his perfection and mercy and our motivations; his love, and our love.

Jesus is the good tree bearing good fruit, but he bore it on the terrible tree of the cross.  He takes that terrible tree, your terrible tree and makes it his.

Jesus’ love for you is a perfect and merciful love.  His love is compassionate towards all who call upon his name, for the forgiveness of sin. 

Jesus’ love for you is so great he sends the Holy Spirit to do the work of germinating and growing faith and love within you.  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to mature us into healthy trees producing good fruit, the fruit of faith and love. 

This fruit of love for God, is confession of sin, allowing God to prune us of the dead wood within.  The fruit of love is faith, allowing the daily death of self, the carrying of our crosses, and the bearing of our neighbours’ crosses in prayer and works that spur them onto salvation. 

This fruit of love leads us to see the cross as the place showing us our blessed helplessness.  But it also shows us Jesus is our blessed help at that very same cross.  The cross is the good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, and put into your lap. 

On the cross, Jesus was measured, and shown to be the only one, who has the only good and holy motives, the only perfect love, and the most merciful compassion.

He is the Son of the Most High, higher than the highest good.  He is the Holy One of God, sending the Holy Spirit to help us in his Holy Word. 

We are being made holy because he is holy, we are being made perfect because his love is perfect, and we can give and forgive because of his mercy. Amen.